safe mode wont go

Had a client who called me tonight with a problem that honestly I have never seen before. She is telling me that the computer comes up with the startup menu and when she selects Safe Mode it starts as she says to initialize something but then screen stays black. when she hits the return key the characters that were on the screen start to disappear.

Has anyone out there ever seen safe mode not do what its suppose to do ??? Anybody got an idea ???

 

gghartman Hi

I don't know win 98 so after this I'll stay out..
Sounds suspicious to me.
Command AntiVirus: <http://www.commandondemand.com/eval/index.cfm>

Trend AntiVirus: <http://housecall.antivirus.com>

Symantec: <http://security2.norton.com/ssc/home.asp>

Does PC start up in normal mode ? and why is user wanting to use safe mode, to troubleshoot what ?
Tell them to not use enter key wait till pc stops grumbling then continue to windows.
I once suggested using safe mode , said use ctrl or f8 taping key
during bootup, from well a cold boot,,and described bios, incase they got there instead, to exit (without saving changes)and try again,, I described once you do select safe mode from the startup menu the PC will start
the display resolutions will be different --don't worry, and you'' end up with a help screen --exit this etc etc
Poster said I tried that but couldn't get into safe mode
I got to a help screen weird-- when I exited it the Icons were all goofy and it said safe mode in all four corners

Why cant i get into safe mode ?

Fortunately someone else stepped in,,It was funny though, sure some of the misunderstanding was coused by the way I,described how I guess, but gee.
so now I quote what MS says and add to. from my own help menu.or MS KB

Lonny

 

I explained to her why it probably came up in and wanted to go into safe mode but she didnt remember having to shut down abnormally. Unfortunately, doing a web scan for virus which it does sound like a possibility is not possible normal mode aint working either.

2 weeks ago I installed norton antivirus and at that time machine was clean. She has a 15 year old daughter using messenger and icq so no telling what her and her girlfriend may have done.

Probably need to reinstall the os especially if normal aint working.

Thanks again.

 

If she can get to selective startup do the scanreg restore (F5)
or use a boot disk to get to command prompt & restore registry.

if useing boot disk A:\ type> c:\
at the next prompt type: cd windows\command
at the next prompt type: scanreg / restore

a list of previous restore points will appear. the dates of he restore points are listed to the left, Select the desired restore point to highlight it, If there are norestore points listed, exit the scanreg utility and type: scanreg /fix

Av scan
Good luck
Lonny

 

Could be a stuck keyboard ?
Maybe a Cola got spilt by daughter ...
regards

 

am going over to this persons house in a couple hours and then I will try the scanreg command and see what happens.

Dont know about the coke on the keyboard. It is possible. I have honestly played and worked with windows since the first version as well as being from the dos days and I dont ever remember seeing safe mode not function. It always works. But then again I am listening to her describe over the phone what its doing so that maynot be the full story. I'm sure anyone out there thats works with the public over the phone know you cant always rely on what the user describes.

Thanks again.

 

Yes.

But the one and only time it happend to me is when the power actualy went off while Windows was loading. ( some one decided that a utility pole down the street a ways needed moving )

My only fix was an overtop reinstall. AFTER a DOS floppy boot and running Norton DiskDoctor and letting it fix a few problems.

And I do agree with not getting anywhere when trying to fix it by phone.

BillyBob

 

Just to let you know what I found out. After running scanreg /restore and going back a few days then rebooting in normal mode it comes back and says a bad message.

"Data Error reading Drive c:" So there was an apparently underlying reason why she started having problems. Am going to rebuild hard drive and see what it finds.